Automatic carton box fabricating apparatus

ABSTRACT

An automatic carton box fabricating apparatus. The apparatus has upper and lower endless feed belts conveying blanks supplied one by one therebetween. The endless belts support the lower portions of the parts of the blanks inside the creases on both side walls thereof. Guide members press the upper portions of the parts of both side walls similarly inside the creases thereof, and folding belts fold the portions of both side walls outside the creases thereof over the guide members during the advancement of the blank. A pressing plate presses down the bottom of the blank after the blank stops in a stopping position. At this point the side walls of the blank have been folded double by the guide members and folding belts. Guide rods bending upwards pieces provided on the ends of both side walls when the blank is pressed down by the pressing plate. Guide members also bending upwards both side walls after each of the pieces is bent upwards similarly during descent of the blank, and guide members also bend upwards both end walls after both side walls are bent upwards during descending of the blank plate. A receiving plate receives the carton made from the blank, supporting the bottom of the blank as it descends under the force of the pressing plate before the pressing plate reaches its lower limit of movement, and a delivery device carries the carton away to a desired place.

United States Patent Sawada 11 Mar. 19, 1974 AUTOMATIC CARTON BOX FABRICATING' APPARATUS 22 Filed: Sept. 15, 1971 [21 Appl. No.1 180,616

[76] Inventor:

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data Dec. 28, 1970 Japan 45-130132 [52] US. Cl. 93/51 HW, 93/49 R, 93/52 [51] Int. Cl B3lb 3/26 [58] Field of Search....... 93/51 HW, 51 R, 52, 49 R 56 References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3.065.679 11/1962 Clement 93/51. HW 3.371.585 3/1968 Moser et a1 93/52 3.014.414 12/1961 Christensson.... 93/52 X 3,122,069 2/1964 Lopez 93/52 3.521.536 7/1970 Waldbauer et a1... 93/51 l-IW 2.848.926 Gschwind et al.-. 93/51 HW Primary ExaminerRoy Lake Assistant Examiner-James F. Coan I Attorney. Agent, or Firm-Wenderoth, Lind & Ponack 5 7] ABSTRACT An automatic carton box fabricating apparatus. The apparatus has upper and lower endless feed belts conveying blanks supplied one by one therebetween. The endless belts support the lower portions of the parts of the blanks inside the creases on both side walls thereof. Guide members press the upper portions of the parts of both side walls similarly inside the creases thereof, and folding belts fold the portions of both side walls outside the creases thereof over the guide members during the advancement of the blank. A pressing plate presses down the bottom of the blank after the blank stops in a stopping position. At this point the side walls of the blank have been folded double by the guide members and folding belts'. Guide rods bending upwards pieces provided on the ends of both side walls when the blank is pressed down by the pressing plate. Guide members also bending upwards both side walls after each of the pieces is bent upwards similarly during descent of the blank, and guide members also bend upwards both end walls after both side walls are bent upwards during descending of the blank plate. A receiving plate receives the carton made from the blank, supporting the bottom of the blank as it descends under the force of the pressing plate before the pressing plate reaches its lower limit of movement, and a delivery device carries the carton away-to a desired place.

5 Claims, 35 Drawing Figures.

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wwidufll 1 1M405 INVENTORS AUTOMATIC CARTON BOX FABRICATING APPARATUS This invention relates to an automatic carton fabricating apparatus for blending automatically blanks of paper board such as pasteboard and the like. When fabricating cartons from pasteboard and the like, heretofore, a process has been frequently used, wherein a carton is formed bycutting pasteboard in a suitable shape, and also making a blank with creases in required portions thereof and bending the blank manually into a carton. Also, various devices for automatically bending blanks have been proposed, but most of them are deficient in the efficiency of fabrication of cartons and in the quality of the carton fabricated.

The first object of this invention is to provide an apparatus for fabricating a carton fully automatically from blanks cut previously in a prescribed shape and creased by applying a small amount of bending to a very small portion and bending all the other portions without using any fittings. V

The second object of this invention is to provide an apparatus for fabricating fully automatically cartons which are very rigid and which have an accurate shape, the peripheral walls of which are double and around the middle portion of the double wall on both sides of the carton the inner and outer walls thereof are adhered to each other with a bonding agent.

The third object of this invention is to provide an apparatus which has a device for feeding blanks automatically one by one from a pile of blanks'and which performs fully automatically the operation of fabricating the carton from the blank plate supplied from the feeding device by bending it correctly in a sequence of steps previously prescribed and delivering a completed carton from a delivery portion.

The fourth object of this invention is to provide an automatic carton fabricating apparatus provided with adjusting device which, for fabricating cartons of different sizes, can simply move the requiredportions to correspond to the size.

These and other objects are accomplished by the parts, improvements, combinations and arrangements comprising the invention, a preferred embodiment of which is shown by way of example in the accompanying drawings, and herein described in detail.

Various modifications and changes in details of construction are within the scope of the appended claims.

FIG. 1 is a side elevation view of the whole of the carton fabricating apparatus according to this invention.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged, partially longitudinally sectioned side view showing the principal parts of the blank plate supply device.

FIG. 3 is a perspective'view of the device of FIG. 2..

FIG. 4 is a longitudinal section on theline 4+4 in FIG. 2. I i

FIG. 5 is a longitudinalsection on the line 5-5 in FIG.2. i V

FIG. 6 is a longitudinally sectioned side view of the bending device for bending both side wand r the blank. FIG. 7 is an enlarged section on the line 7-7 in FIG. 6. r

FIG. 8 is an enlarged section on theline-S-S in FIG. 6.

FIG. 9 is an enlarged section on the line 9--9 in FIG. 6.

FIG. 10 is an enlarged section on the line Ill-10 in FIG. 6.

FIG. 11 is an enlarged section on the line 11-11 in FIG. 6.

FIG. 12 is an enlarged section on the line 12-12 in FIG. 6.

FIG. 13 is a section on the line 13-13 in FIG. 6.

FIG. 14 is a section on the line 14--14 in FIG. 6.

FIG. 15 is a side view of the bending belt of said bending device and the supporting device therefore.

FIG. 16 is a perspective view of said bending belt.

FIG. 17 is an enlarged view of a guide member positioned along said bending belt.

FIG. 18 through FIG. 22 are enlarged cross sections showing stages of the bending of the side walls of the blank while being bent by said bending belt and guide member. 7

FIG. 23 is an enlarged longitudinally sectioned view of the carton forming part of the apparatus. FIG. 24 is a longitudinally sectioned front view of the part of FIG. 23.

FIG. 25 is a cross-sectioned plan on the line 25-25 in FIG. 23.

FIG. 26 is a cross-sectioned plan on the line 26-26 in FIG. 23.

FIG. 27 is a side view looking in. the direction of the arrow 27-27 in FIG. 24.

FIG. 28 is an enlarged front view of the end wall bending part.

FIG. 29 is an enlarged side view of the part of FIG. 28.

FIG. 30 is a plan of the blank.

FIG. 31 through FIG; 34 are perspective views showing the order of steps in the blank plate.

FIG. 35 is the wiring diagram of the controlling circuit.

FIG. 1, a rear frame 31 has a blank supply device thereonaThe blank supply device, as shown in FIG. 2, comprises stop plates 33 against whichthe front end of a pile of blanks 32 is piled, a supporting plate 34 similarly supporting therear end of the pile of blanks, a delivery roller 35 located below the stop plates 33 and upper and lower feed rollers 36 and 37 in front of the delivery roller 35. The stop plates 33 are fixed near the center of a supporting rod 39 fixed to left and right side plates 38 mounted on the frame 31 at both ends thereof as shown in FIG. 3 and FIG. 4, and are two long vertical pieces. On opposite sides of the stop plates 33 are arranged the side stop plates 40 which engage the two sides of the pile of blanks 32. Guide holes 42 are formed in guide members 41 fixed at the lower front side of the side stop plates 40 for slidably mounting the plates 40 on the supporting rod 39. Threaded sleeves 43 are also mounted on the lower portion of the members 41 and are threaded on left and right hand external threads 45 on a shaft 44 having the ends rotatably mounted in said side plates 38.

;The external threads 45.are left and right hand ends of shafts 47 projecting from bothjends thereof in bearings on said side plates 38, and also on the periph- 

1. An automatic carton fabricating apparatus for fabricating cartons from a blank having a bottom panel, opposed pairs of side wall panels joined to said bottom panel along fold lines and each of which has a panel extension thereon joined to the side wall panel along a fold line, and each end of the side wall panels and extensions has an end flap thereon joined to the corresponding panel along a fold line, and opposed pairs of end wall panels joined to the bottom panel along fold lines and each of which has a panel extension thereon joined to the end wall panel aLong a fold line, said apparatus comprising a feed means for supplying blanks one at a time, upper and lower endless feed belts for conveying the blanks supplied one at a time sandwiched between said feed belts, endless supporting belts extending parallel to said feed belts for supporting the lower surfaces of the side wall panels of the blanks conveyed by the feed belts and positioned inside the fold lines on the blanks between the side wall panels and the panel extensions, guide members above the supporting belts for pressing the upper surfaces of the side wall panels downwardly onto said supporting belts, folding belts on opposite sides of said feed belts extending along the path along which the blanks are carried by said feed belts for folding each side wall panel extension on the fold line thereof upwardly and over the guide members to a position above the corresponding side wall panel during the advancement of the blanks, a guide means positioned at the end of the run of said feed belts for receiving and supporting a blank having the side wall panels folded, a pressing plate having the same shape as the bottom panel of the carton and positioned above said guide means and movable up and down below the level of the guide means to engage and press the upper surface of the blank in the area of the bottom panel after the blank has been received and stopped in a position on the guide means, end flap folding guide members adjacent the path of said pressing plate for engaging the end flaps and folding them upwardly as said pressing plate moves down, side wall panel folding guide members adjacent the path of said pressing plate below the level of said end flap folding guide members and engaging both side wall panels and folding them upwardly, whereby the end flaps previously bent upwardly extend horizontally at right angles to said side wall panels, end wall guide members and folding means adjacent the path of said pressing plate below the level of said side wall folding members for engaging the end wall panels and bending them upwardly as said pressing plate moves down and folding the end wall extension panels over the end flaps and against the inner surface of said end wall panels, a receiving plate means supporting the bottom panel, and a delivery device below said receiving plate means for receiving the thus folded carton from the receiving plate means and removing it from said apparatus.
 2. An automatic carton fabricating apparatus as claimed in claim 1 in which said folding belts each comprise an endless belt extending along the first part of the path of the blanks along said feed belts parallel to said supporting belts, and then twisting through 180* and over said guide member adjacent thereto and above the adjacent supporting belt, reversing pulleys at each end of the run of said folding belt around which said belt runs, and guide pulleys guiding said endless belt as it runs from the reversing pulley at the end of the path of the blanks along the feed belts outwardly away from the feed belts and twisting through 180* in the opposite direction from that in which it was twisted in said firstmentioned twisting.
 3. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 in which said guide means comprises parallel endless belts, guide frames extending parallel to said endless belts adjacent both sides thereof, and a stop positioned between said endless belts for limiting the advancement of the blank.
 4. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 in which said receiving plate means comprises a horizontally openable gate plate which is openable when the carton is completed thereby causing the carton to drop on the delivery device.
 5. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 in which said feed means comprises a slant plate supporting the ends of a supply of blanks remote from said feed belts, a roller supporting the ends of the blanks toward the feed belts at a level below the level of the slant plate, and a vertical gate plate above the roller for permitting the blanks to pass one at a time between the roller and the gate plate. 